While in the past there have been many vehicles adapted for the sanding and salting of roads during the winter months involving the utilization of spreading devices mounted to the vehicle, such as illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,764,019; 1,824,419; 1,656,631; 1,924,825; 2,060,652; 2,295,472; 2,577,310; 2,697,609; 2,705,149; and 2,907,482. In more recent times, conventional dump trucks have been modified by strapping a hopper on the back of the dump truck, with a conveyor running from the bottom of the hopper out the back of the dump truck to a spreader suspended at the end of the conveyor.
While the above modification to existing dump trucks facilitates the conversion of the dump truck for sanding purposes in the wintertime, it will be appreciated that the visibility of the rear-mounted spreading apparatus is limited with the respect to the driver of the vehicle. Moreover, sand is distributed after the truck so that the truck traction derives no benefit from the sanding procedure. This problem is particularly acute when depositing sand over freshly oiled and treated roadways. Dump trucks so adapted have been known to slip off the road due to the oily surface and consequent lack of traction.
With respect to those of the above-noted material spreaders mounted at the front of the vehicle, it will be appreciated that each of these vehicles is solely adapted to the spreading of material and cannot easily be modified to provide for another use for the vehicle, either during non-winter months or otherwise. In general, these vehicles are provided with fixed hoppers and fixed conveying means which run around or under the vehicle cab.
In addition to the fixed attachment of the conveying means and the hopper to the vehicle body, there is no ability for the driver to inspect the material carried by the conveying systems during spreading.
The lack of adaptability of the vehicles noted in the above-mentioned patents is particularly severe from a cost-of-operation point of view, since sanding and salting operations occur but a fraction of the useful lifetime of the vehicle. It is therefore a necessity to provide an easily adaptable vehicle in which front spreading is employed, in which appropriate traction can be obtained during the sanding and salting procedure, and in which the procedure can be readily viewed and controlled by the operator of the vehicle.